Chapter 167
Chapter 167
Zhongli Shan and Xing Chun surrounded Mei Liangyu, pressing him about the Sword Spirit matter. Mei Liangyu answered absentmindedly, saying he also wasn't clear where the Sword Spirit came from, his peripheral vision sweeping toward Yu Sui who was walking behind in the corridor.
Yu Sui was still pondering the meaning of Wei Xizheng's words.
Five Elements Energy too smooth.
What had he seen?
Fortunately, the others hadn't pursued it deeply, perhaps it was just some unimportant information.
As she walked, she bumped into Mei Liangyu who had deliberately waited ahead. Mei Liangyu reached out to steady her and asked: "Scared silly?"
Yu Sui looked up in confusion.
Xing Chun said from the side: "Director Leng's murderous aura was indeed frightening enough to scare her."
Zhongli Shan frowned: "How do I feel like the one who got scared was you?"
Xing Chun: "Nonsense!"
Yu Sui put on a distressed expression and said: "This is my first time seeing so many Saints, and also my first time seeing Director Leng take action. It was too terrifying."
This appearance indeed fooled Zhongli Shan and Xing Chun.
"Our Director and Director Leng's relationship really isn't good. When the two meet, they either argue or fight. After watching a few more times, you won't be afraid." Xing Chun comforted her.
Yu Sui obediently nodded, being led by the hand by Mei Liangyu as they walked forward, preventing her from getting distracted and bumping into something again.
Xing Chun and Zhongli Shan fell behind, both watching Mei Liangyu holding Yu Sui's hand, their expressions each different.
After the Sea Fire was extinguished, the Mechanism practitioners also acted quickly, beginning to inspect the gaps on each level and estimate the losses.
After Situ Jin understood the situation outside, he led people back underground to find Situ Ling Kui, finally finding her at the entrance of the Spirit Puppet Deep Pit.
Situ Ling Kui stood before the door, turning back to look at Situ Jin who came rushing over.
"Second Grandmother." Situ Jin breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing her. "How did you get here?"
Situ Ling Kui said: "I followed the traces of your actions."
"I did indeed leave from here. That person's initial target was our family's Spirit Puppet pit, which is why they kidnapped me to remove the restrictions." After Situ Jin finished explaining to Second Grandmother, he noticed the door was closed and remembered Zhang Xiangyun and Luo Fu. His eye corner twitched severely, don't tell me those two didn't get out?
Situ Jin hurriedly stepped forward to unlock the restrictions and open the door.
He spent some time opening the restrictions. As soon as the stone door opened, he saw Zhang Xiangyun with a disheveled appearance not far from the entrance, and Luo Fu sitting on the ground meditating.
Hearing the sound of the stone door opening, Zhang Xiangyun's temple twitched. He turned back to look, and upon seeing Situ Jin, he took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to curse, reached out to pat Luo Fu's shoulder, indicating he could leave now.
"Why didn't you two leave?" Situ Jin was quite puzzled.
Zhang Xiangyun couldn't help but sneer: "What do you think?"
The gritted teeth flavor in his words still couldn't be suppressed.
Situ Jin walked inside while Situ Ling Kui didn't enter, stopping at the entrance to listen to other Mechanism practitioners report the situation.
Luo Fu got up from the ground, moved his shoulders, his complexion much better than before, and had calmed down.
"Let's go, the door's open for you." Situ Jin wasn't being polite with these two.
Zhang Xiangyun led Luo Fu outside, and before they even exited the entrance, they encountered Mei Liangyu's group walking toward them.
Yu Sui still had the Situ family's Spirit Puppet on her mind, so she used some small tricks to pull Mei Liangyu toward the secret warehouse area. Xing Chun and Zhongli Shan were also curious about Northern Kun City and looked around as they walked.
Mei Liangyu's group had just rounded the screen when they saw Zhang Xiangyun and Luo Fu coming out of the stone door. Both sides simultaneously stopped, their expressions varied.
"Oh." Xing Chun felt very surprised, looking at Zhang Xiangyun and Luo Fu, then toward Situ Jin behind them. "You're here too?"
What a coincidence.
The people Zhang Xiangyun was worrying about how to find had now appeared before him.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze moving back and forth between Mei Liangyu and Yu Sui. He had learned from Nian Qiuyan that Mei Liangyu was in the underground of Northern Kun City, but where did Nangong Sui come from?
Nangong Sui had found the person before he did.
Unconsciously, Zhang Xiangyun's gaze settled on Yu Sui.
Yu Sui met his examining gaze without dodging or avoiding, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.
Situ Jin stood in place with a wooden expression, his gaze sweeping over the three Xing Chun and the others, his fox-like eyes slightly widening, finding it both amusing and helpless.
Just how many academy disciples are there in this Northern Kun City underground?!
Mei Liangyu and Nangong Sui were expected, but what's the deal with you two?
Situ Jin stared at Xing Chun and Zhongli Shan with a distant gaze: "I'd like to know why you're here too."
"It's a long story." Xing Chun had a decent relationship with Situ Jin. He bypassed Zhang Xiangyun, blinking curiously as he walked inside. "We were brought here by the sea whirlpool. Speaking of which, is this place your family's Mechanism stronghold? What good stuff is inside?"
He walked to Situ Jin's front but hadn't reached the platform edge yet, so he didn't see the many Spirit Puppets below.
Situ Jin grabbed Xing Chun's clothes and looked at them, saying irritably: "You were brought in by the sea whirlpool, yet you're wearing Baili family clothes?"
"These are from the Baili family?" Xing Chun also looked down. "I don't know either. I just grabbed them randomly when passing by."
Situ Jin took a deep breath: "Grabbed?"
Xing Chun immediately shook his head: "Borrowed, borrowed. I borrowed them and will return them. When I get out, I'll return them to the Baili family."
Zhongli Shan also ignored Zhang Xiangyun and Luo Fu, walking straight forward. Before Situ Jin could stop him, he saw the Mechanism Spirit Puppets below and made an "oh" sound.
"What is it?" Xing Chun stepped forward a few paces and looked out, then his pupils contracted sharply. Frightened, he grabbed Zhongli Shan's shoulder and hid behind him, exclaiming: "What the hell!"
Facing Xing Chun's frightened gaze, Situ Jin raised an eyebrow: "Mechanism Spirit Puppets. How can you be scared by Spirit Puppets?"
Yu Sui curiously moved forward to follow, while Mei Liangyu leisurely followed behind, stopping beside Zhang Xiangyun. The two simultaneously turned to look at each other.
The candlelight at the stone door entrance was dim, and both their profiles were covered in shadow, their originally cold eyes becoming even more profound.
"Being swept into the sea whirlpool and still coming out alive," Zhang Xiangyun's voice was neither light nor heavy, only between him and Mei Liangyu, "you're quite lucky."
Mei Liangyu replied with equally mocking tone: "I'm still alive, but some people are about to die."
"Oh?" Zhang Xiangyun's gaze turned slightly cold, a string tightening in his heart. Looking at Mei Liangyu's attitude, he must have obtained the Silver River Water.
What would he do?
Since Nangong Sui had found Mei Liangyu first, why hadn't she taken the Silver River Water from him? This Little Princess was indeed unreliable.
Because of Mei Liangyu's one sentence, countless thoughts had already flashed through Zhang Xiangyun's mind, but he couldn't wait for Mei Liangyu's follow-up words as he had already stepped toward Yu Sui ahead.
Luo Fu frowned, his eyes signaling to Zhang Xiangyun whether they should directly silence them.
Zhang Xiangyun gently shook his head.
Mei Liangyu wasn't alone. Killing him to silence him was also a last resort, not to mention Xing Chun and Zhongli Shan were with him. These two traveling with Mei Liangyu probably also knew about the Silver River Water.
It's all because of the mess Nian Qiuyan created!
Zhang Xiangyun held back his anger and decided to have Nian Qiuyan solve it himself.
He had given up on expecting Yu Sui to do anything.
Situ Jin had been mocking the Spirit Puppet-fearing Xing Chun when he saw Mei Liangyu approach, his gaze carrying some scrutiny. His sight swept past Mei Liangyu to glance at Zhang Xiangyun and the other, lowering his voice: "Why exactly did you and Zhang Xiangyun come to Northern Kun City?"
"I wasn't willing to come." Mei Liangyu also lowered his voice in reply. "Didn't you see the sea whirlpool outside?"
After hearing this, Situ Jin felt even more surprised: "You really were brought in by the sea whirlpool?"
"Personally verified by the Legalist School Saint, could it be fake?" Mei Liangyu said. "Don't you know that the attack on Northern Kun City was from Water Vessel's artificial sea whirlpool?"
Situ Jin stared at him: "I heard about the artificial sea whirlpool, but I hadn't heard that sea whirlpools could sweep people into Northern Kun City."
Mei Liangyu: "Now you've heard it."
While talking with Situ Jin, his gaze was watching Yu Sui ahead who was comforting Xing Chun.
Situ Jin and Mei Liangyu's relationship couldn't be called very good, nor could it be called bad.
As a child, Situ Jin didn't like playing with the Wenyang family children, nor did he like his own family's pampered and domineering cousins. Although he knew they called Mei Liangyu a bastard behind his back and would fight and brawl, Situ Jin didn't get involved in these matters.
He was busy learning Mechanism Arts from Grandmother Situ. Mei Liangyu's Mechanism Arts talent was famously high, but Situ Jin didn't mind because he was clear that he and Mei Liangyu were pursuing different directions in Mechanism Arts, and their goals were different too.
There was no need to be jealous or target him.
Situ Jin felt that unless Mei Liangyu could become a Mechanism School Saint by age 18, only then would he reluctantly envy this kid's talent.
Mei Liangyu had once been brought by Grandmother Situ to live at the Situ family for about half a year. It was during that period that the two became familiar with each other. As Mei Liangyu's cultivation gradually grew and he became unbeatable on Mechanism Island, he often stayed at Taiyi Academy, only returning when he needed to make up academy credits.
Situ Jin occasionally encountered Mei Liangyu at the academy and would greet him, and they would chat casually with each other.
So compared to Zhang Xiangyun and Luo Fu, Situ Jin could barely be considered on Mei Liangyu's side. He whispered: "I can see those two have ill intentions. Be careful yourself."
"Senior Brother!" Yu Sui turned and called out to Mei Liangyu, her eyes indicating the deep pit below.
Only then did Mei Liangyu turn to look at Situ Jin beside him and say: "Those two aren't worth fearing. Are you busy?"
"Not really." Situ Jin answered.
Mei Liangyu said: "Then let my Junior Sister go down and play for a while, to observe the Situ family's Mechanism achievements up close."
That wasn't impossible.
Situ Jin agreed and turned to have someone notify Li Jin Shuang who had returned to the Spirit Bird, telling her that Nangong Sui was here.
Situ Ling Kui paid no attention to these matters. She also didn't recognize Yu Sui and had no memory of when her consciousness disappeared.
Mei Liangyu walked toward Yu Sui, casually pulling Xing Chun along: "Go down and build some courage."
"They don't have faces!" After being brought down to observe the Spirit Puppets up close, Xing Chun turned and scrambled up, rolling and crawling. It was too eerie, he couldn't stand it.
Mei Liangyu looked up at Xing Chun who had already reached the shore, saying irritably: "They're just a bunch of puppets, what's there to be afraid of?"
Xing Chun wailed: "Puppets should have faces too! They don't even have eyes or noses!"
Yu Sui bent down to touch the little Spirit Puppet's face. The feeling was similar to when she touched Situ Ling Kui's face. Setting aside the face, just looking at the back, you wouldn't think this was a Mechanism puppet at all, but a living person.
"Senior Brother, what are these made of?" Yu Sui asked Mei Liangyu while touching the little Spirit Puppet's hand. "It feels just like human skin."
Mei Liangyu looked back at Yu Sui and said: "That's because it is made of human skin."
Yu Sui and Zhongli Shan simultaneously turned to look at him, their eyes clearly asking if he was joking.
Mei Liangyu said with an unchanged expression: "I'm not joking, it's human skin. The Situ family's Puppet Arts Spirit Puppets are made very carefully. When a living person has just died, before their remaining warmth dissipates, the skin must be peeled off and preserved with medicine."
After finishing, he added: "That's why we lost our clothes."
Xing Chun turned to look at Situ Jin, silently questioning why your family's Mechanism Arts are so gruesome?
Situ Jin explained: "We all go through proper channels. People voluntarily sign contracts with the Situ family, all purchased at high prices."
After speaking, he glared at Mei Liangyu, thinking why are you explaining these things to outsiders?
It was precisely because of Grandmother Situ's controversial style in practicing Puppet Arts that there were still many outside Taiyi Academy who condemned the Situ family and regarded them as scoundrels of the martial world.
Yu Sui looked at her own hands, frowned and hesitated for a moment, then finally walked to Mei Liangyu's side. Under Mei Liangyu's downward gaze, she extended her hand and wiped it on his clothes.
Mei Liangyu: "......"
Xing Chun asked in a trembling voice: "These Spirit Puppets don't also have internal organs, do they? Are the internal organs also taken from dead people's bodies? Is it because you didn't pay enough that they don't have eyes, noses, or mouths?"
Situ Jin's temple twitched as he listened, saying irritably: "Spirit Puppets are nourished by energy and don't have all the dirty things that living people have."
Yu Sui believed this.
Because she had seen inside Situ Ling Kui's body, which appeared to be flesh and blood on the surface, but inside was full of abundant Five Elements Energy. Her physical body was more like a materialized form of Five Elements Energy. What controlled the Spirit Puppet's actions, besides the Mechanism School's methods, was the Five Elements Energy supplied to the Spirit Puppet.